Top ten rivers in Tasmania

Number 6 - Alum Cliffs

The Alum Cliffs section of the Mersey River features long, continuous rapids, big water and majestic, amazing scenery. Due to dams on the upper Mersey this section only flows after very heavy continuous rain forces the dams to spill.

Generally speaking this river is probably easy grade 4. The rapids are generally not that hard, except for one small section in the middle. That being said, a stuff up could see you in lots of trouble, I once paddled for probably half a kilometre or more with another paddler on the back of my boat, so don’t swim!

The crux section of this river is a grade 5 boof into a hole that feeds into an undercut cliff. Shortly after this is an S-bend rapid that feeds into one of the worst stoppers you’ve ever seen. At certain levels it’s a killer, there’s no doubt about that at all.

Most of the other rapids on this river are long, river wide sections, confronting you with hundreds of metres of nothing but white caps, and few discernable lines. Just go with it, the only rapid you can’t boat scout is the crux section and it should be obvious when you get to that, as the gradient makes it impossible to boat scout, the cliffs come right to the water on the right and the eddy on the left is very obvious.

And the scenery on this river is amazing. Enormous sandstone cliffs line the river, sometimes hundreds of metres high. There is one particular spot when the cliffs narrow to only a couple of metres, with the cliffs towering high above you. It’s like the Irenabyss on the Franklin, only far more spectacular.

The ideal level for this river is probably around 1.8 metres on the gauge at Kimberley. 1.6 is still good, below 1.5 it gets crap, due to the lack of gradient on this river. Above 2m is still alright, but it washes out a little. You could do this river as high as you want, it’s a big river bed and minimal gradient, so go for it.

cheers

Harry